A move by supermarkets to
offer the morning-after pill to young women will increase the risk of teenage
pregnancies, a pro-life campaigner claims.

Tesco stores in Weston-super-Mare
and Clevedon taking part in a pilot scheme aimed at cutting the number
of teenage pregnancies are giving the pills out free to teenagers.

Nuala Scarisbrick, of Life charity,
said: "We all want to prevent teenage pregnancies - but this is giving
the green light to teenage sex.

"We need to give them the message
they need which is that sex is precious and not just a one-night fling."

Ms Scarisbrick said she was "astonished
that a family company like Tesco would seek to enter this very sensitive
area".

The company said that everyone asking
for the morning-after pill had to undergo a detailed interview before being
given the pill.

Other shops in the area, including
Boots and Sainsbury's, are also believed to be taking part in the project.

Simon Bilous, of North Somerset Teenage
Pregnancy Group which is coordinating the scheme, told the BBC's Today
programme: "This is a small part of a range of initiatives we have developed
to tackle teenage pregnancy.

Sexual activities

"All our work is in the context of
encouraging young people to say no if they do not want to have sex and
only to engage in sexual activity if they feel ready for it.

"However, we do know that young people
do engage in sexual activities, as we can tell by the number of teenage
pregnancies in the UK, which is the highest in western Europe.

"In other countries in western Europe,
where they have much more liberal approaches to these issues, the numbers
have dropped, so it is not right to say that by making services unavailable
it has the desired effect."

Mr Bilous confirmed that teenagers
were not required to provide proof of age when obtaining the pill, but
added that the stores' pharmacists had the same duty as any other pharmacist
to use their judgment.